Liberal Response

2. What is your party’s position on how to better support the growth of car share, and what steps might you take to further its growth as a means to ease parking and road congestion, as well as reducing the cost of living?

Our vision for transport is to deliver the infrastructure that our nation needs to be productive and well-connected, and to ensure that all Australians have access to reliable public transport and road networks, regardless of where they live. This is why the Coalition Government is investing $100 billion over 10 years from 2019-20 in transport infrastructure across Australia to manage our growing population and get Australian home sooner and safer.

We are maintaining our historically high spend on transport infrastructure, which is now $10 billion per annum over the forward estimates. A key focus of this government is congestion busting, and to that end we are delivering critically needed road and rail upgrades across our major cities. This long-term plan for infrastructure investment includes delivery of two of the biggest transport infrastructure projects in our generation:

the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail for $9.3 billion; and

the Western Sydney Airport for $5.3 billion.

The 2019-20 Budget included $23 billion of new commitments, including:

An additional $3 billion for the Urban Congestion Fund;

An additional $1 billion for the Roads of Strategic Importance;

An additional $1 billion for the Princes Highway across three states; and

An additional $2.2 billion for the Local and State Government Road Safety package.

Of course, physical infrastructure is just one element of the overall transport picture, with emerging technologies and innovations such as car sharing services such as GoGet providing new possibilities when it comes to addressing congestion.

Through our Smart Cities Plan and City Deals, we are working with local stakeholders to explore how best to integrate smart technologies and associated transport services into our cities. This work is supported by the Government’s announcement in October 2018 of our decision to invest $9.7 million to advance work to prepare Australia for automated vehicles and other transport innovations, including through establishing the Office of Future Transport Technology within the federal Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities.